The most expensive chicken bones in the world

Recently, my cat, Puss-Puss exhibited some distinctly disturbing behaviour.  Crouching under bushes and other out-of-the-way locations, I recognised this as indicative of a cat preparing for death, with my late grandmother having experienced such matters as discovering one of her cats dead in an open cupboard upon returning from holiday.  That Puss-Puss, a stray but no more than nine years old, was doing this seemed unlikely, unless the situation was very demanding.

It is also what cats do when they are in severe pain and retreat from public to try and work through their problems.  This has been experienced when a previous cat of mine disappeared for a few days and when she returned, her cheek had exploded, the vet confirming a burst abcess.

So after Puss-Puss had not eaten his nut food for two to three days, I decided to take him to the vet for a check-up.  Doing blood tests just revealed he had a healthy liver and kidneys, so an x-ray went ahead.  This revealed that a large and sharp bone was stuck in his intestines.

Now, for years, we had been in the habit of feeding Puss-Puss the chicken bones left over from our meals as a treat.  He responded by cracking them up and devouring them with aplomb, much preferring them over his nuts.  However, we were informed that chicken bones were dangerous as they had a habit of splintering.

The vet, although professional seemed intent on racking up as big a bill as possible.  Recommending him to stay the night (for a charge of £40), we took him home, as it was probably better for him to be at home than a cattery.  We were also advised to bring him back for a secondary check-up (at a cost of £21).  In total, our outlay was £307, the upper limit of what we could afford outright with a baby an imminent addition to the family and the cost of returning to university looming.   The vet herself seemed keen to put Puss-Puss under the knife to remove the bone which would almost certainly have at least doubled the bill.

To get him to eat, we decided to buy gourmet food sachets, in the hope that he would pass out the offending item.  Luckily for him and for us, the next day he was much perked up, even chasing a squirrel (the squirrel escaped).  Now, he is much like his old self again.  But he have learnt an expensive lesson of never feeding him or other cats chicken bone leftovers again.